Theodore McCarrick, a once-powerful Catholic cardinal who was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after a Vatican investigation determined he sexually molested adults and children, died Friday, according to Archbishop of Washington Robert McElroy.

McCarrick also served as the archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000. He was the subject of an episode of News 12’s “Crime Files” series.

The McCarrick scandal created a crisis of credibility for the church, primarily because there was evidence that Vatican and U.S. church leaders knew he slept with seminarians but turned a blind eye as McCarrick rose to the top of the U.S. church as an adept fundraiser who advised three popes.

The Vatican's report on its investigation put the lion’s share of blame on a dead saint: Pope John Paul II, who appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2000, despite having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he slept with seminarians.

The report found that Pope John Paul believed McCarrick’s last-minute, handwritten denial: “I have made mistakes and may have sometimes lacked in prudence, but in the years of my life I have never had sexual relations with any person, male or female, young or old, cleric or lay,” McCarrick wrote.

McCarrick was 94.